We’ve put together an album of music we recorded over the last couple of years. We decided to let you DONATE whatever amount you want to get the full album (ten high-quality MP3s + album art). Use the donate button above or click on the ‘Get Our Album‘ button on the menu bar to take you to the album page! This donation goes directly to Doug to help him survive living below the poverty line with a disability. It’s a struggle since he cannot work due to his condition, so every little bit helps!

You may have noticed that we have not done a show in a little while. There are multiple reasons for this, some of which are serious enough to bring into question whether we will continue producing episodes regularly.

First, real life gets in the way sometimes and makes it tough to schedule recording and editing time. For example, I was out all last week traveling to the east coast to visit family. There have also been a couple of work events the past few weeks that kept me from being able to even meet with Doug, let alone produce a show.

More importantly, however, is the fact that Doug’s mood has been a bit unpredictable lately. He may be up and feeling great for several days, but then suddenly wake up in low state that takes days to recover from. His doctor tweaked the DBS settings recently, but that is not an exact science and can take months to fully kick in.

During the few up times we’ve had in the past couple of months, we decided to focus on doing something fun and low pressure together, so we recorded some music. We talked about getting a show done during these up times, but felt his mood was still delicate enough that the process of producing the show was just too much pressure. Remember, when we do a show, Doug is usually talking about himself and reliving all the negativity he has been going through. This can be a trigger that could set him back, so that’s why we did a little music therapy instead.

We know that there are listeners who have been helped by our show, and we would love to be able to keep serving the mental health community and being advocates for the removal of the stigma surrounding mental illness. But right now Doug needs to think about his own well-being. It pains us to leave our listeners hanging, but we know that when the stars all align properly again, we can continue our mission in some way.

In the meantime, we will try to continue posting interesting finds about depression, mental illness, and the brain. We might put together a show at some point, but not until we know it won’t adversely affect Doug’s recovery.

Of all the people in the world, we know that our listeners will understand where we’re coming from. We’re still in the fight… it’s just become a little more personal recently.

Today’s show is mostly an announcement of our new plan to do a show every other week, rather than weekly. We discuss a few reasons why we decided to test out this new schedule. It should actually be good for both the quality of the show as well as our personal lives.

With Doug feeling mostly better for nearly 4 and a half months now, he’s starting to think beyond the day-to-day challenges and looking more toward his future. We will still meet every week like we normally did to record the show, but now one week will be more about hanging as friends, playing music, and working on future goals. This will also give us the opportunity to potentially improve the show quality by having more time to lineup guests, flesh out facts, or get a little deeper on some subjects.

Toward the end of the show, we included a clip of our pre-show conversation where we discussed some interesting things about anxiety, public speaking, and stagefright. Nothing too detailed, but we figured it was interesting enough to add to this episode and maybe plant a seed for a future, more in depth discussion.

Hello listeners! The holiday season is upon us, and this is typically a hard time for a lot of people, especially those who suffer from mental illness. Depression can easily set in while being surrounded by celebrations, festive lights, and commercialism. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a real thing and can be very serious. Last year, in episode #33, we discussed SAD and some ways to help overcome some of its symptoms.

This year, as the season creeps in, both Doug and I have had some personal challenges. My dental work has not been particularly fun, but more importantly, Doug has been taking on a lot recently and has definitely felt the energy drain. He’s been volunteering more often at the MDAO… this time of year is tough for many and peer support is crucial. On top of that, he’s had his own mood struggles.

All this has made getting a show done very difficult this month. Again, this week we cannot find the time or the mental wherewithal to do a show justice, so instead we decided to put out our first rerun! This is episode #33, from December 13th, 2016, titled “Don’t Be SAD”. In it we discuss the challenges of the season and try to offer some ways to help get through it unscathed. Our recommendations and opinions about SAD are still the same as last year, so this episode is still very relevant.

Please enjoy last year’s SAD episode. We hope to be back next week with a holiday episode for 2017!

Hi again, listeners! Sorry to say we were not able to produce a show again this week, for a couple of reasons. First, I finally got my tooth extracted and I’m still recovering. My jaw is sore and talking doesn’t help. Secondly, Doug has been facing a few challenges of his own this week, both in mood and in his day-to-day life. We hate to cancel two weeks in a row, but hopefully by next week, we will both be fully recovered and ready to go.

Howdy, Unhinged listeners! Ed here, just letting you know that we will not be recording a podcast this week due to the fact that I had some dental work done and can’t really talk that much without some pain. I am also coming down with a bit of a cold, so it’s a bit of a double whammy.

We are still planning to do a show for next week. I do have more dental work that will be done on Friday, so hopefully that won’t interfere with our plans for the next show. We’ll have to play it by ear for now, but the plan is to forge ahead! Thanks for understanding, and see you next week!

For our 50th episode, we start off with a clip of us singing the King’s X song “We Are Finding Who We Are”. In a way, it’s very relevant to what our show is all about. We look to the unknown future, with pain we have yet to experience, but know is coming. Those challenges can be overcome with the help of others. No mountain is too big to climb if you do it together.

This is evident in the mere fact that we are on our 50th episode. It’s a milestone that took us nearly a year and half, with many ups and downs, including a 5 month hiatus. But we keep coming back to record another episode. Why? Because we’ve heard from some of our listeners that our show has made them feel like they’re not alone, that somehow we have provided just a little bit of comfort to a suffering mind. That gives us purpose, which is validating to both of us, but especially to Doug, who can turn his lifelong battle into something positive for other sufferers.

This is a journey for both of us… an exploration of our fears, wants, and needs. We don’t have the answers, but we’re discovering them along the way. We are finding who we are.

Forever is a mountain we’ve yet to climb
Tears are a part of what is yet to leave behind
Strength in numbers, all you need is two
Everyone’s a winner, while still so many lose

The volume of emotion erupting in our souls
A quiet revelation quickly takes a hold
Patience is a virtue, but she won’t always wait
Dissension is the tension, it’s what we’ve learned to hate

Hello, listeners! We’re taking this week off to regenerate a bit. Since we came back, we always knew we would be moving a bit more cautiously through the show to avoid getting too immersed in such heavy topics.

It can be very taxing to produce a podcast every week, both physically and mentally. This is especially true when the topic is as deep and personal as mental health and illness. Sometimes you just have to take little bites 🙂 Anyway, we hope to be back next week! Thank you for understanding!Share this post:

This week we take a break from the heavy and serious topics and just have a lighthearted conversation. We recorded this podcast while connected to each other through video conferencing, so to us it felt more like we were both in one room just chatting. I think this made this show feel more conversational. Maybe in the future we’ll be able to record our videos as well and have a visual version of the show 🙂

We do discuss Doug’s DBS check up and how he’s feeling generally. He’s been up and down currently, so it’s been a bit of a rollercoaster for him. He was up during this show. We continue discussing the possibility of Doug doing voice acting work just to try to make ends meet. He has recorded his first sample for a demo reel we’re putting together, and we play it on the show. It’s a start!

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Unhinged: Talking Mental

We will attempt to publish one audio podcast episode per week. Each episode is roughly around 30-40 minutes in length and published as an mp3 file on this site and on other podcast sources (iTunes, Google Play, etc.)